Title

Author

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Fine Arts

Major

Creative Writing

Date of Defense

5-1-2015

Graduate Advisor

Steven Schreiner, PhD.

Committee

Seely, Shane

Schwartz, Howard

Abstract

These poems are filled with a concern for identity, sometimes leading the reader into the subconscious realm, or the realm of the muse. In this effort, a few of these poems journey back to childhood to relive images and icons from the 70s. The “Alice” poems delve into the subconscious and question the insanity of existence. Yet the bulk of the poems explore the many facets of love and relationships, conveying a sense of unending desire to be shackled and enslaved by emotion, bordering on obsession. And interspersed throughout, there are poems that reflect on psychoanalysis, physics, and ponder on multiverses, and parallel universes, while questing for the universal answers, with a motif in many poems of “what if….” What if one lives many life times? What if one gives over to passion, lust, or even love? What if one partakes of the “apple”, another motif throughout? The answer to many of these questions seems to be one of transformation. Ultimately these poems lead the reader to question one’s own evolution.